A more
successful and celebrated television pilot in which an emerging female hero was
quickly suppressed, of course, is Star
Trek's "The Cage" (1966).5 Reasonably postulating a future society of
sexual equality, creator Gene Roddenberry established a woman as second in
command of the Enterprise, and Number One was depicted as extremely
intelligent, calm, and perfectly capable of commanding the ship when its
then-captain Pike was captured by aliens. When network officials objected, the character was eliminated in the
second pilot; but the actress who played the part, Majel Barrett, later
returned to the series wearing a blonde wig and playing a nurse. Symbolically, then, a powerful female hero
was reduced in status, changed in appearance to conform to American male
concepts of female attractiveness, and assigned to a submissive and subordinate
occupation.

Furthermore,
while its attitudes towards women have certainly improved, the Star Trek universe has carried on the
pattern of building up, and then eliminating or humbling, strong female
figures. The striking bald alien played
by Persis Khambatta in Star Trek: The
Motion Picture was prominently featured—and then killed—during that film, and two potentially
assertive companions to Captain Kirk—his
ex-wife in Star Trek II: The Wrath of
Khan and a marine biologist in Star
Trek IV: The Voyage Home—later
vanish from the film series without comment. The female Vulcan Saavik is introduced in the second film playing the
part of Enterprise
captain during a training exercise—announcing
her status as a future replacement for Kirk or Spock—and, as played by Kirstie Alley, Saavik was
a strong and independent character. However,
this character was effectively destroyed when producers refused to meet Alley's
salary demands and recast the role in the next two films with a spectacularly
untalented and vacuous actress, Robyn Curtis, transforming Saavik from a woman
warrior to a wallflower. And in the new
series Star Trek: The Next Generation,
while the more conventionally feminine characters played by Gates McFadden and
Marina Sirtis have endured, the tough-as-nails security officer played by
Denise Crosby was quickly killed off.

Perhaps the most interesting case of the emerging female
hero who is not allowed to emerge would be Supergirl, whose odyssey through
comic books and one film provides scathing commentary on the treatment of
female heroes in science fiction.

The writers
originally associated with the creation of Supergirl, it should be noted, all
had strong ties to science fiction. The editor of the Superman stories was Mort
Weisinger, former science fiction writer and one-time editor of Thrilling Wonder Stories; the author of
most of her adventures was Otto Binder, a noted science fiction writer who used
the pseudonym Eando Binder (originally referring to him and his brother Earl
Binder as co-authors—"E and O Binder"—though later stories under the
pseudonym were written solely by Otto); and a few Supergirl stories were
written by none other than Jerry Siegel, the fervent science fiction fan who originally
co-created the character of Superman with artist Jerry Shuster). Although the
story of Supergirl's origin was influenced in part by the need to conform to
the existing Superman legend, Weisinger and Binder, perhaps influenced by
earlier patterns in science fiction, interestingly provided her with a
background that made her a potentially stronger character than Superman.

As explained in
the first Supergirl story, "The Supergirl from Krypton," Supergirl was born on
Argo City, a Kryptonian city that survived the planet's explosion on a large
chunk of rock, and grew up to the age of fifteen with her natural parents, enjoying
the benefits of a stable upbringing and a superior Kryptonian education. When Argo City
itself is doomed by a meteor shower that shatters its lead barrier against the
rock's deadly kryptonite radiation, the end is gradual, allowing Supergirl a month
to adjust to the coming death of her parents and their culture, to put on a
Supergirl costume they devise, and to prepare for her life on Earth. When she
arrives, she is greeted by Superman—revealed to be her cousin—who offers to train her in the use of
super-powers and the ways of Earth culture while she lives in an orphanage with
a secret identity. In "The
Supergirl from Krypton," Supergirl speaks to Superman calmly, even
cheerfully, as she accepts his plans and looks forward to her new life. She is soon adopted by two loving parents and
also discovers that her natural parents survived the death of Argo City
by moving into another dimension; and although they move to Kandor, the tiny
Kryptonian city in a bottle, they remain available for occasional visits, so
she can reach adulthood enjoying emotional support from two sets of parents.

In contrast,
Superman was wrenched away from his natural parents as a small child, arrives
on Earth with no knowledge of his background and only gradually learns about
his Kryptonian heritage, is adopted by loving parents who nonetheless suppress
the boy by forcing him to conceal his super-powers, and finally must endure the
deaths of his adoptive parents, once again leaving him alone in the world. Thus, while everything in Superman's
background would seemingly tend to make him an emotional wreck, Supergirl's
upbringing—despite
the interruption of one major crisis—would
seem to provide her with strong emotional stability.

In addition to
her superior preparation, Supergirl also appears to be more powerful than
Superman. In one early adventure,
"The Three Magic Wishes," she cuts her own hair with her fingernails;
but in "The Untold Story of Red Kryptonite," where Superman's hair
grows very long and must be cut, he cannot do it himself and must ask Supergirl
and Krypto the super-dog to use their combined heat vision to cut his
hair. Evidently, Superman's fingernails
are either not as strong or not as sharp as Supergirl's. Also, in several adventures Supergirl is explicitly
described as possessing one super-power Superman himself lacks—"super-intuition," the ability to
mysteriously sense events before they occur. Even though this ability is merely an
exaggeration of the stereotypical—and in some ways degrading—old concept of "feminine
intuition," it does make Supergirl a superior hero; in a tense situation,
Supergirl can anticipate and respond more quickly to impending problems, while
Superman may not be aware of them until it is too late.

Finally,
Supergirl seems to bring to the role of hero a better attitude than
Superman's. While she is at the
orphanage, she repeatedly shows sympathy for the other children there and uses
her super-powers to help them. In one
story, for example, when a professional golfer pondering whether to adopt a boy
takes him out for a round of golf, Supergirl uses her super-breath to make
three of his shots holes-in-one, convincing the golfer to adopt the boy as his
protégé. In "The Three Magic
Wishes," the problem is that a mean little boy is disrupting the orphanage
story-telling sessions and ridiculing the fairy tales. Supergirl responds by dressing up like a
magic fairy, appearing before the children, and granting the boy three magic
wishes—secretly
accomplished with super-powers—to
convince him to take fairy tales seriously. And how would Superman deal with
the situation? First, it is by no means clear that he would
regard it as a problem worth addressing; second, if he did deign to deal with
it, Superman would probably just talk to the boy sternly and tell him to change
his behavior. In contrast, Supergirl
sees the boy's disparaging attitude towards fairy tales as a significant
problem, and she solves it with imaginative and gentle persuasion, not
confrontation.

Supergirl's
superiority as a hero, however, is best demonstrated by the stories in which
her existence is finally revealed to the world, "The World's Greatest
Heroine" and "The Infinite Monster." This coming-out party is, as in other cases,
preceded by a major crisis—a
symbolic death and rebirth—as
Supergirl mysteriously loses her super-powers at the moment when Superman
originally planned to announce her, so for several months she endures life as a
powerless, unheralded mortal until her powers return. When the world does learn about Supergirl,
their response is enthusiastic and supportive: she is honored by a ticker-tape
parade, and the United Nations grants her a universal passport like the one
given to Superman. To indicate that she
has now achieved equal status, Superman then declares that he is leaving on a
mission to the future, and that Supergirl will be responsible for protecting
the world until he returns.

Predictably, a
major crisis immediately occurs: a scientifically created space warp brings to
Earth an immeasurably immense monster, so huge that as it walks on the ground,
only its gigantic feet and legs can be seen. When Supergirl attacks the monster, she finds it is protected by an
invulnerable force field; she attempts to pick it up and hurl it away, but the
being is too large. While the world
wonders if Supergirl is really up to the task of being a hero, she quickly
devises a way to cope with the problem. A message to Brainiac 5, a hero of the thirtieth century, causes him to
send her a shrinking ray similar to the one developed by his sinister ancestor
Brainiac; although the monster smashes the machine, Supergirl manages to
skillfully rebuild it using her photographic memory; and she uses the ray to
shrink the monster to a few inches in height, so it can be put in a bottle and
peacefully dealt with.

Again, consider
the model of heroism that this adventure suggests. While Superman generally prefers to work by
himself, Supergirl has no hesitation in seeking assistance from her friends. While Superman tends to confront menaces with
brute force, Supergirl uses her intelligence to find a harmonious
solution. Literally and figuratively,
she domesticates the monster instead of demolishing it. We see, then, a female hero who is every bit
as strong as the corresponding male hero—perhaps
stronger in some ways—who
also displays a greater willingness to work with others to solve problems, a
natural compassion even towards beings who are threatening, and a knack for
resolving matters without violence.

At this point,
therefore, Supergirl has completed her apprenticeship, survived her major
crisis, and demonstrated her superior ability. Logically, she should now emerge as the major hero while her former
tutor Superman fades into the background. In fact, this becomes a standard projection of their futures: in one
1960 story, "The Old Man of Metropolis," Superman dreams of a future
Metropolis where he is a decrepit, powerless old man while an adult Superwoman
protects the city in his place. Also,
when the DC super-heroes of the 1940s were recast as residents of an alternate
world called Earth-2, the Superman of that era was drawn as an older man with
greying temples who was generally inactive, while the newly created Supergirl
of that world, called Power Girl, took his place as a member of the Justice
Society.

Although the
chroniclers of Superman could accept this picture as their hero's eventual
fate, they could not present it as an accomplished fact in their hero's
present; thus, although Supergirl had seemed to achieve a position at least
equivalent to Superman, it now became necessary to force her back to a
secondary status.

This was
accomplished in a number of ways. First,
there was one series of stories which reduced Supergirl's physical powers: "Supergirl
has a big problem—she
now has on-and-off super-power. She
never knows when it will work and when it won't" ("Suspicion"
1). The most common strategy of
weakening Supergirl, however, involved her emotional stability: simply put,
Supergirl/Linda Danvers cannot decide to do with her life, and she repeatedly
makes utterly bizarre shifts in her career and lifestyle in an effort to find
happiness. In later stories, struggles
against villains and aliens become subplots in ongoing serial adventures which
feature Linda Danvers's struggles with problems and stressful events in her
everyday life.

A full
chronicle of Linda Danvers's various careers would take some time, but a brief
overview will suffice. First, Linda
leaves the security of Midvale and Midvale
High School to go to Stanhope College;
then, after graduating, Superman/Clark Kent gets her a job as a television
reporter at a news station in San
Francisco. Dissatisfied with that career, she goes back to Vandyre University
as a graduate student studying acting. Then she moves to Miami to take a job as
a special student advisor at New
Athens Experimental
School. She next moves to New York, somehow becomes an actress in a
soap opera, and achieves national fame portraying a prominent villainess. At this point, all efforts to maintain
continuity in the character were abandoned as she was abruptly returned to the
age of nineteen and sent back to college, this time to Lake
Shore University
in Chicago.

To accompany
these bewildering changes in her life, the costume of Supergirl also changes
repeatedly. Initially, Supergirl wore a
blue shirt like Superman's and a red skirt; it was then revealed that the skirt
was reversible, with blue on the other side, and the blue skirt became
standard. The shirt evolved into a
loose-fitting, low-cut blouse with the "S" reduced in size and moved
to her left breast; then the blouse and skirt were changed into in a short
dress, and Supergirl added a fancy belt with bangles and thigh-high boots to
her wardrobe. During these changes,
Supergirl's hair grows longer and fuller, her breasts increase to more than
respectable dimensions, and her lips get wider. At a late stage in her career, she added a red headband and the "S"
was re-expanded to become something like a decoration around her neck. To add to the confusion, Supergirl once
suffered the indignity of being the subject of a contest in which readers were
invited to send in their own sketches of what they thought would be Supergirl's
ideal costume; those designs were then employed in a series of adventures. I recall one issue where Supergirl had to
fight evil dressed in a strikingly unattractive blue body stocking that covered
her entire body.

To the extent
that there is any pattern at all in all these changes in appearance, one
observes Supergirl changing from her original tomboyish look to that of a
Playboy centerfold; and as her character is physically "bimbo-ized,"
her mental state also deteriorates. Supergirl sometimes wonders if she really wants to be a hero: she tells
Superman at one point, "I've told you how I feel before, Superman…. How
I'd rather be a genuine flesh-and-blood woman than a Supergirl. I mean, it was a
kick at first—the fame… concealing my secret identity—but it was all piled on my shoulders the
day I landed on Earth… and… well, I'm
just not the world-saver you were
born to be" ("Princess of the Golden Sun" 2; author's italics
and ellipses). Her later move to Chicago is specifically
framed as an effort to find herself: "There's nothing selfish about
wanting to get into yourself for a while instead of thinking about the whole
blasted world! I do enough of that as Supergirl—and
wasn't the whole reason for this move
to give myself space to be just plain
Linda Danvers?… I feel like I've totally lost
hold of the part of me that doesn't scoot around the universe in shorts and a
cape! I've forgotten what it feels like to be just a person… instead of a symbol!" ("A Very Strange and
Special Girl" 5; author's italics; first ellipsis mine, second ellipsis
author's). No matter what she finds
herself doing, she always gets dissatisfied and goes on to something else; she
is distracted during her battles with evil by various problems in her personal
life and in her relationships to other people; she is particularly prone to
schoolgirl crushes on various attractive men. Finally, it should be noted that her various changes in occupation also
contrive to reduce her status, as she is repeatedly either sent back to
school—further symbolic apprenticeship—or she is trapped in traditionally female
occupations—reporter,
teacher, actress.

Even readers of
the time began to notice how the character of Supergirl was being toyed with
and weakened. "Supergirl has sure
gone through a lot of drastic changes since her debut in ACTION COMICS
#252," one reader commented ("The Superman Family Circle," Superman Family No. 218,
[47]). Another remarked,
"Supergirl/Linda may find herself a new job, but will she still be treated
like a child? Will she still pine away
over idiots or will she become involved in more mature relationships?… I hope
that the new beginning for Supergirl will carry with it some real changes. Please quit trivializing her" ("The
Superman Family Circle," Superman
Family No. 211, inside front cover).

In sum, while
Supergirl develops no physical weaknesses not shared by Superman, she develops
one super-weakness that never troubled Superman: emotional instability. Shunted from life to life, continually moving
through a sea of strange faces, unable to find any happiness or contentment in
her life, her life in fact starts to resemble a continuing soap opera, and a
stereotypical sexist attitude—that
women do not have the emotional strength and solidity to compete with men—becomes embedded
in her character. And that becomes the unstated reason why she
fails to fulfill her destiny and supplant Superman.

Still, the
character was provided with a chance for redemption in the 1984 film Supergirl. Continuity is again abandoned as Supergirl
begins as the resident of a thriving Argo
City who voluntarily goes
to Earth to retrieve a magical object accidentally teleported to Earth. Superman is nowhere to be seen—officially, he is said to be off on a space
mission—so
that Supergirl can occupy center stage. She successfully battles with a powerful villainess, Selena, and at one
point she must defeat Selena to rescue a dumb but attractive man who has fallen
into her clutches. It seems, then, that
the female hero has finally achieved equal status in a world where powerful
women fight to decide the fate of helpless men.

However, only a
plot summary of Supergirl can be
defended as a feminist fable; the film itself is a disastrous joke. Certainly, that was the attitude of Faye
Dunaway, the actress who played Selena in the manner of outrageous
"camp." By casting Supergirl
simply as a visitor from an unthreatened Argo City,
all of the interesting depth in her character was removed, and her exploits
display neither any particular power nor any particular intelligence. When trapped in the Phantom Zone, she is
reduced to despair until a helpful man, Zaltar, appears to inspire her and lead
her to an escape route. In sum, more so
than her worst moments in the comics, Supergirl is portrayed in the film as weak,
vacuous, and impossible to take seriously; she is not a true female hero, but
rather a weak parody of a male hero.6

After the film
proved a failure, Supergirl was deemed an expendable character, and in 1985,
she was killed off in "Beyond the Silent Night" battling the evil
Anti-Monitor.7 Sgnificantly, she essentially gives up her own life
to save Superman; dying, she tells him, "I knew what I was doing…I
wanted … wanted you to be safe … You mean so
much to me … so much to the world" (39; author's italics). Thus, while Supergirl was once a character
with the potential to be strong and independent, she found herself increasingly
burdened with clichéd and stereotypical female traits and makes her curtain
call as the ultimate female cliché—the
self-sacrificing martyr.

The entire
career of Supergirl, by the way, is interestingly foreshadowed in the very
first "Supergirl" story, "The Girl of Steel" (1958). In an adventure obviously designed as a trial
balloon for the Supergirl character, Jimmy Olsen obtains a magic amulet and
wishes into existence a female companion to Superman, whose blonde hair and
red-and-blue costume exactly anticipate the appearance of Supergirl (although
when the story was reprinted in Superman
Annual #8, her hair was colored auburn and her costume green-and-orange, to
minimize the similarity). However,
Supergirl, who is inexperienced and thoughtless, turns out to be nothing more
than a problem for Superman, and after she dooms herself by rescuing Superman
from Kryptonite, she asks Jimmy Olsen to end her life: "I was no help to
Superman anyway! It is best that I
go!" (10) Thus, like the later
Supergirl, she is introduced as Superman's potential equal, revealed as overly
emotional and incompetent, and finally allowed to kill herself to save a man's
life.

It is also
interesting that Supergirl's career follows—in reverse order—the three stages in depictions of women
listed by Eric S. Rabkin in "Science Fiction Women before
Liberation." First, in her
appearance she becomes a "sex object," the third stage; then, with
her numerous crushes of the 1970s, she becomes "the lovestruck
female," the second stage; and in her death she becomes a "woman
exploited through her selflessness," the first stage (15, 14). So the entire pattern of her career following
its high point
in 1962 is one of regression and return.

Asked about
these repeated changes in Supergirl's life and her ultimate fate, her writers
and artists would no doubt reply that her sales were slipping, and some
revamping of the character seemed necessary; and when repeated efforts failed,
the only logical step was to eliminate the character. But the explanation is disingenuous. Maintaining a successful hero requires both
periodic revision and a commitment to basic continuity in the character. At times, Superman's sales were also
slipping, and new teams of writers and artists have been called in to update
his character. But their changes were
all careful minor surgery: Superman's powers were slightly reduced, he changed
from being a newspaper reporter to a television anchorman, he gained a new boss
named Morgan Edge, Lex Luthor was recast as a scheming corporate tycoon, and so
on. But through it all, Clark Kent always
lived in Metropolis, always worked as a journalist, and always kept the same
circle of friends. No one ever suggested
boosting Superman's popularity by having Clark Kent
move to Aspen,
get a job as a skiing instructor, and meet a group of glamorous new
friends. But that is exactly the sort of
wrenching transformation that Supergirl repeatedly had to endure. And all these incoherent changes suggest not
an attempt to strengthen her character but rather a perverse—perhaps
subconscious—effort to destroy her character. In addition, there were many ways to remove
Supergirl from the scene without killing her, such as
an extended visit to the Kryptonian city
Kandor, a temporary loss of her super-powers, or a sudden decision to go into
retirement; the decision to slaughter the character suggests latest sadism.8